Drawing upon at least two stories from The Bloody Chamber, explore the ways in which Carter might be considered to re-interpret gothic conventions.

The genre of gothic literature has always been popular and the connotations found in Carter’s stories in The Bloody Chamber are arguably fitting of the criteria of gothic fiction. In the Bloody Chamber story for example, there are a lot of references to blood such as the ‘forming pool of blood’ from one of her husband’s former lovers. There are also many references to ‘monsters’ and ‘vampires’ and death. Also, the protagonist is emotionally battered and at the end of the story, she survived but was left with this permanent red mark on her forehead. She says that ‘no paint nor powder… can mask that red mark’. She even refers to it as a symbol of her ‘shame’. She survived but all she had witnessed and all the corruption that her husband had embedded upon her cannot easily be erased with his death. A conventional gothic text definitely contains a rather sombre ending. Carter ended this story with a sense of survival with a touch of unending entrapment (symbolised by the mark), even after the one she referred to as ‘monster’ no longer existed in her life.

However, Carter’s stories can also be interpreted as a different version of the conventional gothic genre. Some would even say her stories are not gothic at all. In the Tiger’s Bride, there is a particular sense of a happy ending. The image of nature and rebirth is clear and although, similar to all of her other stories in the book, the ending was rather abrupt, the phrases that were used such as ‘beautiful fur’ and ‘nascent patina of shining hairs’ give a very positive feel to the readers. The image of her earrings turning into water again emphasises the huge association to nature. It’s as if the transformation was exactly what the bride had wanted. Even though she did not like the tiger and kept referring to him as ‘The Beast’, the whole story does not refer to her turning into a tiger for him and for love. This happy ending does not fit the gothic genre in a sense that it could be interpreted as a transformation for herself, to give herself a new start. Yes, this image of natural rebirth is extremely similar to Victor’s creation of the Frankenstein monster. However, in that gothic novel the images were ugly and unnatural whereas in The Tiger’s Bride, the images are all of natural happenings and natural elements such as water. They completely contrast each other.

One other story from Carter’s collection is The Snow Child. This story has many paranormal connotations, which fit the gothic genre perfectly. The image of the girl beginning to ‘melt’ is one example and another is the image of clothes from the Countess reappearing on the girl – ‘the furs sprang off the Countess’s shoulders and twined round the naked girl’. Also, it is as if the girl was conjured like a potion as she was a perfect version of the Count’s description of ‘snow’, ‘blood’ and a ‘raven’. This shows a slight reference to witchcraft. The themes are also quite dark such as the somewhat incestuous rape as he calls her the ‘child of his desires’, which is very perverse. It is also quite ironic how a rose, which is a symbol love, is what kills her. These all fit quite perfectly within the conventional gothic themes.

However, the fact that the story is quite simplistic and short does not give room for descriptions of emotion. For example, the ending is suspenseful because the rose ‘bites’ and it shows how the girl is avenging her death but there is no description of how she felt. Carter somehow doesn’t give the victim a voice at all and there is an absence of the sense of fear which is present in most gothic novels. The natural elements may refer to witchcraft but it could also be that it is too natural that it’s beautiful. Winter is even personified to be so immaculate and invincible. In Frankenstein, nature played an extremely huge part too but it could be argued that the story is too short to see the gothic themes within it and the beauty of the descriptions of nature overrode the sense of the gothic in this story.